


it's just a leap

by unrain



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M, spider-man au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 20:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18858250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrain/pseuds/unrain
Summary: "I think Spider-Man is stalking me,” David says.





	it's just a leap

“I think Spider-Man is stalking me,” David says, sitting down beside Matteo in the cafeteria, on the usual table their friend group has occupied every lunch for three years now.

Carlos gapes at his arrival, the yoghurt spoon in his mouth clattering to the ground. Abdi freezes in the middle of throwing back his water bottle, some water drizzling down his shirt. Hanna is looking down, her bangs falling over her eyes but her hands clenched around her pink lunch box. Jonas looks at him like a deer caught in headlights, although that’s a more common than a wholly unique look on Jonas’ face. Amira simply raises her eyebrows and looks at him intently.

David can’t see him, but he can hear Matteo spluttering, a box of choco milk falling to the table with a dull thud, wrong side down, and making a small brown pool on the white table.

There’s a ringing silencing around their table for a moment, only broken by the chatterings of the students around them, the only sign that time is still moving.

Then Amira clears her throat while adjusting her hijab to clear non-existing creases, and the spell is broken as everyone seem to simultaneously start breathing again. “Why do you think that, David?”

“I don’t know,” David says, dragging the syllables in confusion and looking at everyone as they start to move around again. “I just—Wait, what just happened right now, exactly?”

Abdi looks forlorn down at his shirt, saying, “Dude, what the fuck? I’m meeting Sam right after this.”

“Man, it’s just water, it’ll dry in like two minutes, chillax, you baby,” Jonas says, reaching across Hanna to give Abdi a playful but reassuring clap on the shoulder.

Carlos picks up the yoghurt spoon with a pout and a calculating look. “Dude, David, we all appreciate a good entrance around here, but please, next time? A little warning, please?”

“Carlos, don’t even think about it,” Hanna says with a grimace, throwing a napkin at his face. “Clean it before putting it in your mouth or else I’m telling Kiki to never kiss you again.”

“What the fuck,” Carlos whines, “hello, five second rule, everyone?”

“Guys, focus,” Amira snaps. She hasn’t looked away from David this whole time and David suddenly gets the distinct impression that she hasn’t because she doesn’t want to let her gaze wander.

Beside him, David hears Matteo shuffling in his seat as he wipes away the mess the choco milk left. He feels a sudden warmth pressing against his thigh, there and then gone in the same second.

“Wait,” Abdi says, voice sounding from a faraway place. “It wasn’t just a joke?”

“No,” David says, a bit shaken, maybe by the way everyone is looking at him again, all serious and somber. He shakes his head and tries again, stronger in the voice this time. “No, it’s just, he’s saved me countless times this month alone, not to speak of the whole year. And it’s not like, randomly either. It just can’t be. He’s there right before the mugger’s fist connects to my face. Right there before the whole construction building falls on top of me. Swooping me away from a skidding car. Catching me before I break my neck on a slippery staircase.”

David stops talking when he notices Amira is smiling. No, she’s not smiling, per se, but she’s trying her damn hardest not to, but the way she’s biting her lips and her eyes has turned into half moons betrays her.

Actually, everyone is smiling.

Laughing, Carlos waves his spoon in David’s direction, while someone else gives him a playful kick to the side of his leg. “Sounds like little Spidey has a crush on you, mayhaps?”

Feeling all the warmth rushing to his head, David immediately ducks his head to hide what are inevitably his red cheeks. He conceals the gesture by stabbing his salad and chewing on a couple of leaves to buy himself some time as everyone laughs.

Matteo isn’t laughing. In fact, when David steals a sneak peek of him out of the corner of his eye, Matteo is slumped into his seat, not moving much at all except to fiddle with the empty choco milk box between his hands.

“I don’t know, David,” Hanna says, making David jump a little and snap his head towards her so fast, it’s a miracle he doesn’t get a whiplash. She smiles at him kindly. David has always liked Hanna, sweet and nice Hanna, as Matteo always describes her. She looks upwards for a moment, before saying thoughtfully, “David, you do live in a more dangerous street. Maybe it’s just all coincidental? Maybe Spider-Man happens to patrol your part of the city more often, and that’s why he’s able to help you so often?”

Amira nods, snapping her fingers towards Hanna in her agreement. “Right! That makes sense. And if you still feel uncomfortable and think that he’s following you specifically, you can just tell him off, David. I’m pretty sure Spider-Man would understand and wouldn’t want you to feel anxious about his presence.”

That explanation makes much more sense in David’s head. That was what David wanted, after all. An explanation that made sense of this whole weird situation. And yet. And yet he still feels disappointment hard and burning in his throat. 

“Yeah, you’re right, Hanna,” David says and laughs a little at his own bout of narcissism. “I’m just your below-averagel guy, after all. What could Spider-Man possibly want with me?”

“Wait, man,” Abdi says, leaning over the table and bringing his face close up to David’s face in his delight. His eyes flick between David’s eyes, he’s that close, before his face breaks into a giant grin. “You like him! You like that he likes you! You like the thought of Spider-Man wanting you, don’t you?”

“Abdi!” David reels back at Abdi’s breath, waving his arms in front of him to push him away. “Dude, why the fuck would you eat garlic bread before meeting Sam?”

“Oh, shit,” Abdi says, sitting back a few shades paler and blinking helplessly at Carlos. “Do you—?”

Carlos holds out a pack of gum without a word.

“Anyway,” Amira says, rolling her eyes at Abdi and Carlos. She frowns at David, an unhappy tilt of her mouth and David doesn’t know what he did wrong, but he already knows he’s in it now. “David Schreibner, what is that self-deprecating bullshit coming out of your mouth? You? Average? Below-average?”

“Yeah, don’t piss me off, bro,” Carlos says, flicking David on the forehead so it hurts a little. “You? Top of your advanced P.E. class, hello? Did all that muscle replace your brain, or what?”

“It couldn’t have,” Abdi says, trying to peel off gum from his beard from his failed attempt at making a bubble. “He scored second best on the mid-terms. Only topped by Ms. Righteous and Studious herself, Amira Thalia Mahmood.”

“Yeah,” Amira says slowly, looking like she’s pulling the nails off her fingers. “But, the truth is that you’d probably would’ve been at the top if you hadn’t been too busy arranging and directing the school play at the same time.”

“Not to mention, you have a part-time job,” Hanna points out, “and you’re an incredible artist and you still make the time to hang with us losers, golden boy.”

“Like, dude,” Jonas says, “don’t look now, but Leonie has been staring at your back for the last five minutes.”

Simultaneously, they all look up and turn around to watch a flustered Leonie hurriedly look down at her lunch with a face set on fire. David feels his own cheeks warm again, and he hurries to turn back around, only to catch Matteo’s gaze as he’s doing the same. 

David’s breath catches in his throat, because the glare in Matteo’s eyes seem to soften at the connection, and he can’t help but latch on the implications for why Matteo would be glaring at Leonie in the first place, or why they would look so conflicted at David anyway. But the thought is almost overshadowed by the beautiful clear blue color of Matteo’s eyes and the fact that they’re not black and bloodshot and how sad it is that David can’t remember the last time he met Matteo’s gaze.

_(“I’m always high on you, David,” Matteo had drawled._

_“No, Matteo,” David had said, broken open and scrubbed raw, “you’re just high.”_ )

Matteo’s eyes slip away first, falling down David’s face and then sliding completely away as he faces forward in his seat again, lithe fingers playing at the strings of his hoodies. His nails are clean and neatly cut and even. Matteo used to bite them till he drew blood.

There’s a few moments where everyone is silent again, but if they’re waiting for Matteo to say something about David, they’ll have to wait an eternity, so David takes the time to finish his salad. 

“Whatever,” Jonas says suddenly, steel in his voice. “I bet Spider-Man never said anything to you, huh, David? Follows you all the way back home to make sure you’re safe, but can’t muster the courage to say a word, right? He’s a fucking coward, so maybe you shouldn’t bother.”

David opens his mouth to protest, but then he closes it with a quiet click of his teeth when he realizes he can’t because the truth is as exactly as Jonas has described it. Jonas is known to be harsh against Spider-Man, often clashing with Matteo over him, Matteo always taking the position opposite Jonas, but even Jonas isn’t this angry at Spider-Man usually.

Matteo makes a dismissive sound, and everyone zeroes in on the point beside David.

“What?” Jonas bites. “Got something to say, Matteo?”

“Yeah?” David says, and finally, finally, turns his head along to look at Matteo after what has been a stalemate of them sitting beside each other every lunch hour for a year without fail, but both refusing to be the first one to acknowledge the other, and David’s tired, and David’s pining, and David just wants to know if Matteo might still have feelings for him despite everything, so he turns around to face Matteo, tilts his head with a smirk, and says, “Jealous?”

Matteo looks side-eyed at him while eating at his bottom lip, making it red and glistening. He swallows, his whole throat moving, and looks away before saying, “Of you? Hardly.”

The atmosphere around them gets a few degrees colder, but Matteo continues as if not noticing, “If you’re looking for me to fight you on Spider-Man being a coward, you have to look elsewhere, Jonas. Guy acts like your over-protective boyfriend but doesn’t even talk to you? A fucking coward and also a loser and a half if I’ve ever heard of one. You deserve more than Spider-Man, David.”

Matteo hasn’t been looking at him while giving his speech, but as David’s name passes by his lips, he looks up at David again, as if punctuating the statement, and God, God, David has been in love with this asshole for over a year, but he’s still falling in love all over again and again and again, and it’s not fair, it’s fucking not fair.

“It’s not fair,” David says, “you can’t just—”

Different beeps and ringtones go off around the table at the same time, and everyone shuffles around to pick up and look at their phones. Except Matteo, who looks at David with slightly parted lips and wide eyes shining with what David could easily delude himself is awe if he was a weaker man.

“Dav—,” Matteo begins, but Amira interrupts with a sharp call of Matteo’s name. He looks at her with an irritated scowl, but then he seems to remember his phone and looks down at it. 

When Matteo looks up at David again, he does so with gritted teeth and eyes looking close to tearing up. “David, hold that thought, okay? I just, I just need to do something for my mom, okay? I promise this isn’t me running away, I’ll be back asap, I just have to—”

But the realization has already dawned on David as the thousands of small puzzle pieces, seamlessly, miraculously, click into place. How quickly Matteo and Amira seemed to become best friends. The fact that Jonas always seemed to rip into Spider-Man whenever he had almost died heroically in some kind of fight. How Matteo sometimes came to lunch with bruises that seemed days old, but David knew he hadn’t had any the day before. The fact that Matteo still has the same amount of absences in his classes, but this time around his eyes are clear and focused. 

The realization has to be showing on his face somehow because David can see the same realization mirroring on Matteo’s face as he steps away and starts to jog away backwards, eyes still on David. Bumping into someone and stumbling doesn’t break the eye contact, and it’s not until Matteo is at the doorway and about to turn and leave that David is able to shake off the daze. 

He doesn’t know how Matteo’s superpowers— _Jesus fucking Christ_ , Matteo has superpowers and fights superpowered villains on the regular, what the fuck—work, or any superpowers for that matter, but he banks on good hearing or at least good sight, so he stands up so fast his chair topples over and mouths, “Be careful and good luck.”

Matteo must understand him, or at least the intent, because he smiles, a small but brilliant thing, and nods, before disappearing in the next blink.

David is left staring at the doorway for couple of seconds more before he calmly picks up the chair and sits down again. He folds his arms in front of him and looks over at the shameless smiling faces of his friends and says, “So, am I supposed to believe you all just happened to get the same mass text from Mrs. Florenzi?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> L o L i have sooo many ideas for this au its not even funny, like. maybe i'll write more in the future, but i just want you to know matteo never told anyone that he's spider-man and all of his friends just happened to stumble upon the truth in one way or another sjdhsslksk also in this au matteo and david were hmmm not together exactly but toeing the line before they mutually broke it off. in this au i imagine matteo's troubles piling up faster before he ever met david and so was at a very very bad place when they started showing interest in each other, but matteo just needed more time to grow in on himself in this one. he's not """cured""" or anything, he's just at a much better place at this point of time in the au, so. yeah!! thank you for reading 🌸 i live for any and all kinds of feedback!! love u and have a nice day 💕


End file.
